Chapter 4

Raey

I turned around, breath coming faster now, and ran into the room. My feet silent against the plush carpet, I ran towards the bed. I had a break tonight. I had a chance.

I grabbed blankets from the bed, thin ones mostly, and one warm thick one, even though it was always spring here, didn't mean it was spring where I was going. I ran to the oak wardrobe and ripped open the doors, almost frantic at this possibility, this hope like a breath of fresh air.

I dug down to the very bottom, where a used bag lay. I'd stolen the pouch off a guard some years ago, and this morning I'd returned to the servants' quarters just for it. Someone else was in my bed. They'd already replaced me. I grabbed the bag and turned, thinking about the journey I would soon face.

I grabbed clothes at random, tunics and boots and thick leather pants. I took a moment to change out of my flimsy, revealing dress and into proper hiking clothes. I looked beside y bed, where a tray lay with the remains of my dinner. The bread was hard now, the soup cold. I forced down as much of the soup as I could and stuffed the bread into my bag. After a moment's consideration, I grabbed the apple too, and placed it gently on top. I ran to the bookshelf in the corner of the room and grabbed a couple. Never a good idea to travel without reading material.

I heaved my bag onto my back, so much heavier than when it was empty. Much heavier than the small trinkets that were all I had lifter for many years. I let my magic probe ahead and felt the minds of the guards patrolling the outer wall of the manor. I was careful to locate Tamlin- in his study- and his new buddy Lucien- in his bedroom.

I turned towards the open window and scanned the visible grounds. I could sense no malevolent faeries in the area other than the guards, who had a strike-first-ask-questions-later policy. I stood there for a few minutes and determined the walking patterns of the guards.

The next time the guard underneath my window turned away, I slipped through the frame and clambered down the wisteria growing on the wall. I was glad I had changed into pants and sturdy boots, or this would have been much harder.

I snuck through the hedges, the crunching of the gravel muffled by my magic. I crept closer to the wards around the manor, and pushed my power through, cleaving a small, undetectable doorway through the High Lords magic. It took very little effort.

I glanced back at the darkened manor that had been my prison, but also my haven, for hundreds of years. I knew I would have to go far to get away from it, but my goal was worth it. Even if it was so far away. Even if it was the furthest tip of Prythian. The Night Court.

A week in and I was starting to think this was a bad idea.

My survival skills were a little rusty, almost non-existent, and my combat skills were much the same. I was exhausted, and I felt weak, but I had finally reached it. This Spring Court border. I knew the ancient laws by heart, and exactly what I had to do to get across it.

The tunnels lay ahead of me, looming in the otherwise bright afternoon. I was so close to escape. I just had to walk through. I stepped towards the tunnel that lead directly to night court territory and took a deep breath. I was so close.

But I was tired. I was tired, and hadn't eaten for almost a week, the minimal rations I'd had running out days ago. And thanks to a run in with some Naga, I was also bleeding. Still, although it was a few days ago now. Four gashes across my shoulder, poisoned and festering.

I had been violently sick all of yesterday, and blood was still trickling out of the wounds. I dropped my pack, its weight too much. Now I only had the clothes I wore, and my blade, clutched in a bloody hand.

I shivered, the fever running high. I knew I wouldn't make it far, but If I collapsed now, I would make it nowhere. I stumbled forward, my feet dragging, and my back slumped, my arms wrapped around my middle.

The tunnel loomed before and around me. The dank air swarmed around me. The light faded into the distance as my footsteps echoed around the cold, rough-hewn stone walls. My vision faded in and out, or was that just the darkness of the tunnel? I wasn't sure, my grasp on reality fading. So close. I was so close. I felt the shift in the air. The freshness. Light bloomed ahead, moonlight.

I sucked in a breath of cool, familiar air, my heart stabbing with memories, and stumbled out of the tunnel I felt the wards that surrounded the whole territory. I was approaching them. I delved deep inside myself and used the majority of my remaining power to cleave through them, tough though it was. I only ensured my glamour was secure before I collapsed, shaking.